If you were hoping this would be the game in which Kentucky would conquer its demons, well, I’m sorry. All of Kentucky’s worst traits came back to haunt them this afternoon, and as a result, they lost to Auburn 75-70. Yes, the same Auburn that had lost four of its last five games and was ranked 13th in the SEC.

Before we break out the mind erasing GIF from “Men in Black,” let’s break down what went wrong.

“If your team doesn’t have post presence, you’re a fraud.”

Calipari said that last week when discussing his team’s issues in the paint, and it rang painfully true today. Why did Kentucky lose? Look at these stats:

To be fair, Alex got poked in the eye near the start of the second half and had to go back to the locker room for a while, but when your three big men combine for only 13 points and 9 rebounds, you don’t have much of a chance.

At halftime, Jay Williams nailed it when he said, at times, it looks like Kentucky’s playing 3 vs. 5 because of their poor post play. After the game, Bruce Pearl had the understatement of the season when he said the Cats “don’t have, right now against some defenses, a go-to post presence.”

That’s putting it nicely, Bruce.

Derek Willis stepped up

Shoutout to Bullitt County’s finest for one of the finest performances of his career. With the rest of the bigs missing in action, Derek stepped up, scoring 12 points and grabbing 12 rebounds, the first double-double of his career. Willis’ most important contributions weren’t even reflected on the box score. He fought, scrapped, and dove for balls, injecting his team with some much-needed energy and toughness. According to John Calipari, that was enough to move him up the rotation.

“I was so happy for him,” Calipari said of Willis. “If you ask me, he moved ahead of all the other bigs.”

Kentucky blew a 12-point lead in six minutes

There are a lot of depressing stats from tonight’s game, but the worst may be that Kentucky blew a 12-point lead in only six minutes. Ouch.

“When we got up 12, I said make them drive and just don’t let them shoot threes,” Calipari said. “We gave up four threes within a few minutes.”

It may only be January, but at times, this team looks like it has absolutely no idea what its doing.

Kareem Canty had the game of his life

Credit where credit is due: Auburn’s Kareem Canty balled out tonight. As players often do against Kentucky, Canty caught on fire, scoring a game-high 26 points, including five threes. Towards the end of the game, he rolled his ankle after stepping on Tyler Ulis’ foot, but stayed in to hit some big free throws to seal the upset.

That being said, Kentucky beat itself tonight.

Tyler Ulis tried his hardest to win it at the end

Before the game, Dan Dakich trolled Big Blue Nation when he tweeted “There isn’t a Kentucky fan alive that truly believes Tyler Ulis is a Top 5 point guard in the country. It’s a birthright to whine, but zero believe.”

Well, until the last eight or so minutes, Ulis wasn’t having the greatest game; however, when the game got close, he put the team on his back and finished with 17 points, 10 rebounds, and eight assists, just shy of a triple double.

“He’s disappointed and upset with some stuff, and I don’t blame him. Kid wants a win. That’s who he is,” Calipari said of Ulis. “I wore him down and played him too many minutes but I had no choice.”

Of all of the telling stats tonight, the fact that 5’9″ Tyler Ulis had more rebounds than Alex Poythress, Marucs Lee, and Skal Labissiere combined says a lot.

Eat it, Dakich.

Get ready for some changes

Calipari was clearly frustrated after the game, telling Tom Leach that changes are coming.

“I gotta figure out what we do. Do I start playing other people and just say ‘That’s it, you had your chance? Maybe you just don’t have it’? I don’t know. I feel bad for those kids because I know they want to do this, but they’re just not getting it done.”

Get ready to see the football pads back at practice. In another attempt to inspire toughness from his squad, Calipari said they’ll “go back to football” next week to get ready for another tough road trip to Arkansas.

I’m too depressed to worry about that game right now, so let’s move on.

Matt and Drew might not be allowed to travel to another road game

So far this season, Matt and Drew have traveled to the UCLA game, the Ohio State game, and now the Auburn game. Kentucky’s lost all three. In fact, Drew was scheduled to go to the LSU game but backed out. According to the KSR calendar, he’s also scheduled to go to Kansas and South Carolina…I doubt Kentucky has much of a shot in the former, but any way we can talk him out of the latter??

I’ll leave you with this…

As the final seconds ticked down and it became painfully clear Kentucky was going to lose, John Calipari sent his players back to the locker room early to avoid the inevitable court storm. Ulis was the last to leave the court, and on his way out of the tunnel, he pulled the “Anti-Pitino”:

I didn’t think it was possible, but I think that makes me love him even more.

I know people hate the truth but unless Cal has way more talent then other coaches he seldom wins. The most talented team several times yet 1 title…..EVER. Last year the most talented team, biggest team ever in the game, has to hang on to beat a well coached Notre Dame team then loses to Wisc. Even at Memphis, always ran through a sorry conference because of talent, get a high seed and easy road in the tourney, no title. Great recruiter, average game coach. When you don’t have the far superior team they must be coached, just like the Nerlens year this team looks totally lost and that comes back to coaching and preparing.

Tubby can coach, his style is not attractive to top players but is a way better game coach than Cal. I am glad Cal is here, he does alot for the area, I just don’t think he is a good game coach. Many coaches would have multiple titles if they could get the players and teams he had. Great recruiter, average coach.

So, in the 77 years the NCAA tournament has been played, UK has won 8 titles – 3 in the past 20 years. Thats a 10% winning percentage, which is SECOND IN HISTORY. Ten percent. And thats made us an elite program. There are 349 DIV I schools who would kill to have that 10%.

But WeareBBN here, this genius that he is, thinks Cal should have at least 4 titles in the last 6 years, or a success rate of 67%. Ya know, because as history has shown, its just SO EASY!!!

I mean, look at Coach K, arguably the greatest college coach in modern history, who has 5 titles himself – oh wait, thats over a 41 year period, or 12%. Rupp, who made UK the basketball tradition it is today, won 4 over his illustrious 42 year career. Thats 10% for those keeping score at home.

But Cal…… no Cal is expected to win titles 67% of the time, against better athletes, better coaches, and more teams in the tournament field.

Making the Final Four 67% of the time while at UK isn’t good enough for ol’ WeareBBN. Or winning titles at nearly double the rate of Rupp. No, WeareBBN expects so much more…….

Easy to win when you simply have the best players. Is why Oak Hill, Montverde etc. in High School win so much. I don’t care about the history, I live in the now. We are losing to teams that Middle Tenn State, La Tech and Texas Arlington beat. Losing to teams that have many losses, including several by 20 plus points. Do you think Middle Tenn State or Colorado has better players than UK? Prolly not but they beat Auburn. Do you think La Tech or Texas Arlington has better players than UK? Well they beat Ohio State and their last 2 losses are by 60 points. I don’t expect to win every game but losses to horrible teams should not be accepted. I am sick of the every team we play is their superbowl, Auburn shot 38% and beat us as their coach had a game plan of not letting our guards get to the basket. How did we counter that, chuck up 3’s {and miss} instead of ball movement and screens. Have you watched us play, we don’t look like we have a clue. Houston scored 105 on LSU we got 67, only one team {American} has fewer vs them.

No one with actual NBA credentials could possibly think Skal is an NBA player…..especially in the next 2-3 years. And anyone drafting him would at least expect him to produce within a couple of years. Skal’s only chance would be to stay at UK, get stronger and follow sort of a Cauley-Stein timeline. The problem is that Cal will only continue to bring in players better than him…limiting his playing time and stunting his growth as a player.

The biggest challenge I see for Skal is the fact he is simply not a very good defender for a 7-footer. He also just doesn’t do anything very well. His main skill was the mid-range jumper, and without confidence or the coach putting him in the position to succeed (using floor spacing), he is only good as a pick and roll big who the guard can lob it to the rim for. Sadly other than that, he is almost useless on the floor (this year). We shall see what he becomes moving forward and if he has the capacity to truly improve and be even somewhat close to what was anticipated. Personally, I have my doubts (as he just seems too timid emotionally), but I will continue to root for the kid…just not a the expense of playing him over others who may wind up better and contribute more (ala Humphries).

Folks shouldn’t be upset, this is normal UK basketball. Throw out that miracle post season NCAA run in 2014 & 3 out of the last 4 years, this is what you get. Freshmen can’t carry the load this year & they won’t be able to do it next year, either. The recipe for beating UK…get physical & pack the zone, they can’t handle either one. What fight this bunch has, if I only had a wet paper bag handy, I’d guarantee you they couldn’t punch their way out.

Yes, no inside game. The talent isn’t on the bench either.
There will be no NCAA tourney run with this squad.
The question now is, how do you make room for the guys committed for next year? I don’t see guaranteed NBA money on this squad.

While i hate to see my team lose, i’m not that upset. For crying out loud, we’ve been to the F4 umpteen times lately–you can’t be GREAT every year for crying out loud–a couple of RARE recruiting misses are hurting us. The only thing i’m upset about is Alex Poythress–all the talent, strength, ability, and athleticism in tbe world and he provides virtually nothing more often than he provides anything on offense. A good defender, but his team desparately needs him to man up EVERY game like he did against Alabama. At this point i’d just as soon see his minutes go to Willis, Matthews, Humphries, and Wynyard to develop those guys. Alex has had plenty of time to develop…i don’t see him becoming what this team needs.

Our starting guards took 51 shots our bigs took 11. If you don’t pass them the ball where do you expect the points to come from? This team could have A.D. back and he would still be 5th in shots taken.

I’m sick and tired of Calapari blaming everything on his bigs. Is it the best front court we’ve had? No. But it can do a lot better with the proper play calling and coaching. I’ve said it for years, Calapari is the best recruiter in the history of college basketball. He’s an incredible motivator. He’s also a horrific in game coach. He does not allow his kids to make a mistake and play through it. He does not set up the right game plan for each outing. Case in point, sit the Harrison’s against Wisconsin, put in Booker and Ulis, and we’re going to the national championship. How many times tonight did you see Cal call a play for Poythress or Lee on the block tonight? Seriously. How many? All I saw was Poythress on the perimeter waiting for an offensive rebound or a miracle. Flash back 2 games ago and ask that same question. The first ten minutes of the game was nothing but posting Alex and Marcus, then feeding the post. What happened? THEY BOTH HAD MONSTER GAMES! When the talent is off the charts like last season, it’s easy to overlook Cal’s play calling shortcomings. When it’s an “average” team (by Kentucky standards), it’s painfully obvious…stop screaming, intimidating, bullying, and just COACH.

By worst, do you mean someone who has an opinion that parallels that of many very knowledgeable analyst and highly informed fans? Or do you just like to troll comments with no real feedback? I’m up for debating any comment I make, but if you have nothing to say to back up your ignorant retort, then you should probably just keep your mouth shut.

I agree with the point about getting the ball inside. You can’t expect Alex or Marcus to score if they never get the ball. And you can’t expect them to rebound when they have to set screens 20 ft from the basket.

“But it can do a lot better with the proper play calling and coaching” So “proper play calling” is going to make them lest soft so they can outrebound the smallest guy on the court who also is far further from the basket 90% of the game? How does that work exactly?

He gives Lee and Skal minutes with their future in the NBA in mind. Humphries can do what they do but with a bigger body and more effort. Hell, I imagine Tai can as well. I don’t see Poythress ever panning out. He just doesn’t have the motor and temperment. Trying once every 3 games doesn’t cut it. But we don’t have a PF any better so you still have to play him. Will be nice to get Hawkins back. He’s always a spark off the bench now. With killer D and effort.
Anything is possible with a great PG. And we have that. Plus we beat U of L and Duke. Probably gonna lose 4 more games on the road. @Kansas for sure.

Let’s stop blaming the bigs for everything. We do not run any plays for them and almost never pass them the ball. They are used to set screens and if they want to score then they need to put back a missed shot. Dribble drive offense means dribble the clock down then the guard with the ball take a bad shot.

I think it is comical that when a UK fan speaks the truth, others think he/she is a cards fan. I understand the frustration of watching this team, it is painful to watch. The problem I have with Calipari is that UK is truly a players first program. The perfect example and someone mentioned it above, last year against Wisconsin, if he put in Booker and Ulis instead of the twins, we bring home #9. I know Cal always says “I love my team” but how can you say that Ulis is the best floor general he’s ever coached but plays the twins, especially after the 1st or 2nd shot clock violation. Why? Because he’s showcasing the Twins for the NBA. Poythress is a senior, he is the same player as he was when he 1st arrived. You can make an argument about Josh H & WCS in how they improved but they did go up against future top NBA Draft picks in practice. My point is, Calipari does NOT draw up plays, he does not set up screens for Ulis or Murray. He could even set up picks for Skal and maybe even boost his confidence. Why is he even play Skal over the other bigs? Oh, that’s right, it’s a players first program. Skal is projected a lottery pick, so that is why he is on the floor over the other bigs, to showcase him. Humphries cannot do any worse than Skal nor can Tai. I am glad to see Derek in the game but his minutes will eventually drop, because he needs to showcase Skal. I just hate the fact that he coaches to send players to the NBA rather than coaching to winning a championship. You can say that winning the title every year is hard, I agree, not always the best team always wins. However, last year, we have no excuse. We just got out-coached. I don’t expect UK to win it all every year and I don’t expect them to do anything this year. He depends on talent to win games and the years we don’t have 5 NBA players on the team, he can’t coach. When I say he can’t coach, I am talking about setting up plays, setting up ball screens, curls, it’s all dribble and drive. Only problem is, teams has us figured out. Clog up the middle and let us shoot 3s. You would think Cal would “tweak” something, set up plays, but unfortunately he does not.

This team really stinks. They can’t play defense on the perimeter, because they can’t play defense down low. Everybody sags to cover the donut hole or they get rubbed off on screens. Poythress needs to be a sub, Skal needs to be washing the uniforms because he can’t play basketball. Last year proved that Cal is not a game coach. His defense is predicated on having a shot blocker, you play tight on the perimeter and make the other team drive, no one to block shots this year so we give up the three. His offense is based on driving to the basket. So he recruits players who can’t shoot a jumper. AAU ball has ruined the game. A 5 star is someone who can drive and dunk. Watch the mix tapes of our wonderful recruits year in and year out. Dunks and layups. No fundamental skills like ball handling, defense, jump shots or team play. Matt Jones has been salivating over next years class for over a month, “We are going to be really good next year.” Dribble drive is just a term for I don’t have an offense. He doesn’t even have a in bounds play where you try to score, Cal just tries to get the ball in. Quit recruiting out of a magazine, quit watching AAU games and mix tapes. Go watch someone play on their high school team. We need more supposed 2 & 3 stars who play hard game in and game out, who actually want to be here, because these “4 & 5’s” act like they are in the NBA where you just mail it in some nights. I’m growing tired of the one & done.

UKBRAD….shows your ignorance. Wins has nothing to do with coaching, he gets NBA players and more talent here. If Tubby had these same teams, which he would not cause the top players don’t like the discipline, Tubby would have at least 2 and maybe more titles. If he had the same teams as Cal over his career, not just at UK, I think Tubby would have 5 plus titles. Cal has the wins because of his recruiting {legal or not and I don’t believe he is cheating badly here at UK} { I say badly cause all programs are doing a little something}, not his coaching. For some reason kids had the mindset that Cal puts players in the NBA when he really recruited NBA players. Those guys would have been top picks right out of High School if they were allowed, Cal simply got them to his school and kids believed he was the reason they were drafted. Wall, Cousins, Davis etc would have been the same top pick if they played at Eastern Ky. Just like Simmons this year, #1 from High School and will be #1 in NBA no matter where he played. Of course Skal was #2 thru 5 from High School and Cal will have him for 3 years like the twins as he misjudged their talents.

So funny to read the comments on this board. All coaches lose games they shouldn’t – often with superior talent. Wonder how Duke lost to Clemson and Notre Dame? Guess Coach K can’t coach. Just a stupid argument from disappointed fans.

Agree, all teams lose to inferior teams some. We lost 4 to horrible teams. Duke only has 1 bad loss to Clemson although losing to us is becoming one. Would you want to play Duke today? They have improved since our game, we have gone backwards. Bad teams have losses to several bad teams….like Ohio St to Texas Arlington, La Tech and blowouts of 25 and 35 points, LSU has several bad losses, UCLA the same, Auburn is horrible and had lost like 4 straight… Duke lost to Clemson at a time when Clemson is playing great but is still a bad loss as Clemson has several bad losses. Notre Dame is good and very well coached, just like last year. You probably just go by rankings, which are worthless opinions used mostly to sell games. Those rankings had us the best team in the country,,,,lol,…..even the most insane UK fan knows we are not close to the best team. No rankings should come out till February cause by then you know who is for real, but then they could not advertise #1 vs #4 this whatever night to build hype and sell ads.

I think our guards are very good, but they seem to dribble the air out of the ball. If the inside game is to improve they need to move the ball inside earlier in the shot clock. The bigs can then post , or kick the ball out. Too much dribbling without purpose.

It is very hard to have any inside play when you have Lee and Alex screening for the guards 25 feet away from the basket. Watched our guards shoot with all five of our players near the 3 point line and then we get beat back down court for a layup when we miss. Thats not the bigs fault. How many times did we run the pick and roll for Alex last night ? Has been an effective play for us. Did not run it once last night. All you have to do to beat Auburn is guard the 3 point line. How many wide open 3s did they get ? A bunch. Can’t blame Lee and Alex for those. I am sorry, the problems we have right now are not in the middle. The problem we have is this 3 guard line up we are trying to run. I like Murray but he is not good enough to score 1 on 3 or 1 on 4.

Yes, you do it by having the best players in a very weak time for college basketball. There are few really good teams so when you have 5 NBA guys every year it is not hard to win alot of games. When you don’t have that talent you lose in the NIT 1st round to a guy named Robert and if this season continues the trend we may be back in the NIT or a 1st weekend exit in NCAA. WHY? Coaching is needed when you don’t have the best players 7 deep.